The Amazing Escape Artist

Well, after the dog attack we’ve decided that it’s best to keep Mocha up until the dogs are caught. But poor thing, she’s already cleared out all of the greenery in her area. I can’t really keep her in there indefinitely, she’ll starve. She needs to graze, so I decided to make a temporary pen for her to munch in during the day until we can let her loose again.

We had a roll of 5 ft. high chicken wire that we’ve been meaning to use for another project, but in the meantime I decided to use it for her pen. Have you ever tried unrolling and stapling chicken wire by yourself? Let me tell you, it’s a job!

The place I wanted to put it is in the trees, in a nice bushy, overgrown area. After about an hour and a half of unrolling, tugging, and fighting briers and branches I finally got the wire around the area. I tried to wrap it around trees, ’cause I only had four wooden posts to use for the project.

Once I got everything in place and was satisfied, I let Mocha in. She loved her new little “playpen” and grazed happily as I sat back, glad to be done.

After watching her for a few minutes I was sure that she would be okay, so me and the kids went back inside. It took literally three minutes after I shut the back door before I heard a very loud “BAAAAA!” coming from the back steps. I looked out the glass and there was Mocha… out of her pen!!

Bummer.

So, I got my hammer and staple gun and went back out to find the hole she’d crawled under. After diligently searching the fence, and blocking a couple of places where it was loose along the bottom, I was pretty sure that she couldn’t escape again. I put her back in, and went inside.

A few minutes later I heard a polite knocking on the door… Okay, maybe it was more like the sound of two hooves pounding and scratching at the back door. I went to look out and saw Mocha’s head up in the glass, looking in through the door’s window, yelling again, “BAAAA!”, at the top of her lungs! ( I tried my best to catch her while she was peaking in through the window of the door, but never could get a picture of her. It was quite humorous!)

Ugh. Let’s try this again.

I went back out and searched the fence for a weak spot. I noticed that there was a log on one side of the fence that she could easily climb on and use to jump over the fence. I drove a stake right there and stapled the fence up higher so that she couldn’t jump over it. That ought to do it!

Nope. A few minutes later she was back at the door.

What in the world! How is she getting out?? I put her back in and watched her for a while, but she just stayed there like a good little girl, and didn’t dare escape while I was watching.

Finally, she started grazing again. It was then when I finally discovered how she was doing it. When she jumped up to reach the branches hanging over the fence, she stood with her feet on the chicken wire. Well, since it was only staked in a few places it was loose, and the fencing would buckle over causing her whole upper half to fall with the wire and be straddling it, half in the pen and the other half out.

She was then easily able to climb right over the fence once it had doubled over.

Aha!

Lesson learned: Chicken wire needs to be strongly staked about every 2-3 feet, and stretched very tightly in order to keep a goat in. And you need to secure it to the ground somehow to keep them from going under. Oh, and by the way, she can clear a 4ft. fence no problem.

All that work for nothing. At least I learned something from it: Chicken wire really isn’t the greatest thing to keep a goat in. It’s hard to put up, and stretches and becomes loose very easily. I’d suggest using something stronger.

You poor thing! You did all that by yourself? You are a lot harder worker than me. That chicken wire is a mess to work with even when you have a couple people, my sympathies to you. You had to have had a lot of patience. Poor thing is lonely and wanted to come in an visit with you for a while. She’s so precious!

"Hi! I'm Kendra. I'm a wife, mother, and homesteader. I love everything that has to do with simple living. I'm a canning instructor, an avid gardener, and a constant learner of old-fashioned skills. Here is where I share it all. Welcome to the adventure!"